Undocumented immigrants face challenges after Wine Country fires

Fire burns along the ridge near a field of grape vines along Highway 12 on Monday, Oct. 16, 2017 in Oakmont, CA.

Photo: Paul Kuroda, Special to The Chronicle

Javier wanted to see it with his own eyes, to confirm that the neighborhood where he’d raised his two sons, Santa Rosa’s Coffey Park, was no longer there.

Nearly two decades ago, he fled Honduras for America after a hurricane destroyed his business and livelihood. He built a life with his wife and children in the middle-class neighborhood that was rather ordinary — except, perhaps, for his lack of U.S. citizenship.

But as the 51-year-old man turned down the road leading to his rented home on Oct. 9, he wasn’t prepared for the sight of rows of flattened houses, still smoldering a day after the deadly Tubbs Fire swept through. He got out of the car and held his wife and 20-year-old son.

Moving forward from the Wine Country fires will be challenging for thousands of people who lost loves ones, homes, schools, workplaces or other things. But undocumented immigrants like Javier face special hardships due to their status, advocates said.

Javier, a service-industry worker who asked to be identified only by his first name because he is fearful of being targeted for deportation, cannot seek most traditional federal disaster aid to cope with the loss of his home and possessions. Meanwhile, some undocumented residents have lost out on work because of the fires, and cannot apply for benefits designed for this scenario.

Javier knew all this when he returned to the ruins of his home, but tried to muster an inspirational message. After all, he’d restarted his life once before, albeit as a much younger man.

“We have to start over. There’s nothing we can do,” he said he told his wife and children. “Cry as much as you can in the next three days, because we have to rise up and do something for our life.”

The lack of assistance for undocumented immigrants troubles advocates and attorneys who worry about the futures of these residents, some of whom are agricultural workers central to the economy of Wine Country, as they navigate an already expensive, housing-strapped region.

“In these times, undocumented residents are already vulnerable, already facing a lot of fear and anxiety. Their jobs, homes and lives as they know it are disrupted like anyone else, but they have fewer options,” said Tanya Broder, a senior attorney at the National Immigration Law Center.

“They’re already facing a lot of hurdles,” she said, “and now like everyone else they’re starting over — but with much less.”

In disasters like this month’s wildfires, the Federal Emergency Management Agency provides money to citizens and certain immigrants to, among other things, obtain short-term lodging, replace essential property and rent a new home. The money — which can in some cases amount to tens of thousands of dollars — is for items not covered by individual insurance.

Undocumented residents who have a U.S. citizen in their household are granted an exception and can apply for aid. But that doesn’t apply to Javier, whose two adult children have protection under the federal Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program, which President Trump is phasing out.

He said he has no savings and makes a lower-middle-class salary on which he pays taxes. He lost $100,000 of property in the fire, he said, and does not have insurance.

“I understand it. I’m grateful to be alive and I can work. I’m strong enough to work,” he said. “I just want to get a house — a place we can call home and feel comfortable. That’s it.”

At the vineyards that draw hundreds of thousands of tourists to Sonoma and Napa counties, the fires have had a deep impact on undocumented workers, said Armando Elenes, a vice president with the United Farm Workers Union.

He said some workers have been laid off as a result of vineyards burning, while others missed out on more than a week of time in the fields and the paycheck that would have come with it.

While U.S. citizens and qualified immigrants in the region can apply for federal funding to cover costs for missed work time, undocumented employees without work authorization cannot. That’s a big blow to the majority of the workers in the region’s fields who do not have legal status, Elenes said.

The aid can amount to as much as $450 a week for 26 weeks and is available to people in Sonoma, Napa and other counties affected by the fires.

“The fact is you have a high cost of living and workers struggling to make ends meet who don’t have a safety net,” Elenes said. “For them, losing that type of work has a big impact.”

Fortunately, he said, the wine harvest was roughly 85 percent finished before the fires hit.

Still, for vineyard workers like Patricia, 52, the loss of work is difficult. The undocumented resident of Santa Rosa, who also asked to withhold her last name, missed out on 10 days of work — roughly $800 — at a time when job opportunities are slowing with the approach of winter.

“We just imagine we are going to fall further back on everything. We’re trying to stretch what we have to make ends meet,” she said.

In the days after the fire, immigrant-rights advocates met with undocumented residents in the region to hear stories of their losses of property and jobs. It was from there, said Davin Cárdenas, lead organizer of the North Bay Organizing Project, that community groups began to create an independent fund meant to provide financial relief to those who don’t qualify for federal aid.

A committee made up of undocumented residents met and created criteria for how the money will be doled out. Cárdenas said the group had raised $200,000 and would start distributing money next week.

“This is a way we can have an impact on this ongoing crisis,” he said.

The existence of the special disaster fund, called UndocuFund, was welcome news to Javier, who is considering his next steps as he and his family stay at a friend’s home in Rohnert Park. During his hurried escape from Coffey Park, he was able to grab only a few things, including important documents, an iPad and a Bible he’s carried with him since he was a young man in Honduras.

A week and a half later, Javier said he is grateful that his family survived the fires. He’s also holding out hope that he will soon be on a path to U.S. citizenship, after applying for a visa available to crime victims who assist police. Javier helped solve a robbery in Sonoma County.

“We understand that material things come and go,” he said. “We understand that we cannot get it back. There’s nothing we can do — we have to move on.”

Hamed Aleaziz is a reporter covering immigration, race, civil rights and breaking news. Hamed graduated from the University of Oregon and spent a year living in Amman, Jordan. He is always on the hunt for stories so feel free to contact him with ideas and pitches.